By Stefan Coerts

European football's governing body has revealed that no player breached drugs protocol in 2012-13, while also announcing the introduction of blood tests.

UEFA has announced there were no positive doping tests in last season's Champions League and Europa League after 1374 doping controls were carried out in Europe's major club competitions in 2012/13.

UEFA conducts both in and out-of-competition doping controls in the Champions League. A total of 813 samples were collected from players during 2012-13, with over 67 percent of the samples analyzed for EPO – the substance deployed to increase endurance and physical strength.

Meanwhile, European football's governing body will begin carrying out blood testing across all its competitions in 2013-14. Until now, UEFA has only conducted blood tests at Euro 2008 and Euro 2012 final tournaments.

Blood testing will take place both in and out-of-competition, and players may be asked to give only urine samples, only blood samples, or both.

Furthermore, in collaboration with the WADA-accredited laboratory in Lausanne, UEFA is launching a study to analyze the steroid profiles of almost 900 players who have been tested at least three times in UEFA competitions since 2008.

The aim of this study will be to identify the potential prevalence of steroid use across European football by using data from previous doping controls. The study will be anonymous and its findings will not result in any player incurring an anti-doping rule violation.